Cincinnati 83, Depaul 54

Bearcats Claw Blue Demons

When Baker saw the zone defense Meyer's team was playing, he felt elated.

"I recruited D'Juan out of high school," Meyer said, "so I know how he can shoot, even though he hasn't been playing much because Cincinnati has so much talent."

"You always want to play hard against a school that recruited you," Baker said. "And when I saw the zone, I thought, `Time to light it up.' "

Meyer, then, might have been the least surprised person among a crowd of 5,654 at the United Center when Baker scored a career-high 19 points and led the Bearcats (22-5, 10-1 Conference USA) to an 83-54 rout over the outclassed Blue Demons (3-21, 1-12)

Baker, a 6-foot-2-inch junior guard from Ft. Worth, Texas, hit 8 of 10 shots, including 3 of 4 from three-point range. But the Bearcats didn't even need him to bury an opponent thinned by injuries and suspensions.

To say that Cincy blew away DePaul in quick time is an understatement. The Bearcats led 17-3 after 10 minutes. After 17 minutes, Cincy led 28-11. DePaul had four baskets, two by walk-on Ronnie Kammes and the other two by the teams' five scholarship players.

At halftime, Cincy led 31-20. DePaul had shot .267 (8 of 30) from the floor, .200 (3 of 15) from three-point range and .200 (1 of 5) from the foul line.

"It's obvious that when you can't make shots you'll have a hard time against a team the caliber of Cincinnati," Meyer said after his team's 11th straight loss. "Our kids played hard, but they got discouraged when the open shots weren't going down."

Meyer noted that his lone senior, Marcus Singer, "wasn't bashful about shooting. I don't think we ever had a player try 17 three-point shots."

Singer nailed five of the 17 three-point tries for his 15 points. The first one was the 160th of his career, breaking Brandon Cole's school record.

Baker's performance gives coach Bob Huggins one more weapon on a deep, strong, physical team that was ranked No. 1 in the nation in some preseason polls.